Museum of the Game ®

International Arcade Museum® — Killer List of Videogames®

Hydro Thunder

Description

The player drives a turbo jet-powered speed boat in a wild water race filled with ramps, jumps and some treacherous areas of water.

Hydro Thunder was produced by Midway Games in 1999.

Midway Games released 53 machines in our database under this trade name, starting in 1972. Midway Games was based in United States.

Other machines made by Midway Games during the time period Hydro Thunder was produced include: Touch Master 4000, Bio Freaks, Hyperdrive, Touch Master 5000, NFL Blitz '99, NBA Showtime - NBA On NBC, Carnevil, Cruis'n Exotica, NFL Blitz 2000, and Invasion

Specs

Name	Hydro Thunder
Developer	Midway Games (United States)
Year	1999
Type	Videogame
KLOV/MOG #	8161
Class	Wide Release
Genre	Racing
Development Team	Wendi Allen, Diego Hardware Development
Monitor	Orientation: Horizontal Type: Raster: Medium Resolution Color: Color
Conversion Class	JAMMA
# Simultaneous Players	1
# Maximum Players	8
Game Play	Alternating
Control Panel Layout	Single Player
Controls	Steering: X-directional yoke Throttle Lever with thumb button - Turbo
Sound	Amplified Stereo with Subwoofer (three channel)
Cabinet Styles	Upright/Standard Environmental/Cockpit Deluxe/Themed (non-motion) - 39"
Side Art	Hydro Thunder Side Art Image

Game Play

The 3-D-FX and Omega 3-D powered graphics are spectacular with water spray and lens-flare effects, as well as superb water physics and effects. The great controls and varied race courses, which from an island in the pacific to the arctic to a ship graveyard, help keep the racing interesting.

Hydro Thunder KLOV/IAM 5 Point User Score: 4.42 (10 votes)

Fun Factor: 4.37

Overall Like	4.60
Fun (Social)	4.10
Fun (Solo)	4.40
Collector Desire	3.70

Technical Rating: 4.48

Gameplay	4.40
Graphics	4.70
Originality	4.50
Sound/Music	4.30

Personal Impressions and Technical Impressions each account for half of the total score. Within the Personal Impressions category, Like carries a little more weight than the other factors.

Cheats, Tricks, Bugs, and Easter Eggs

There are many secret shortcuts in this game. The easiest way to find some of them is to aim your boat at any waterfall and drive through to the secret shortcuts.

There are four special boats: Armored Response, Blowfish, Tiny Tanic, and Chum Dinger(faster than it looks). Select either one of the bottom two medium boats or either of the bottom two hard boats and press pilot over and over until the craft changes into one of the secret boats.

Finish a race fast enough to make the high score list, then enter either ?PB or ?DL to unlock all the tracks and secret boats.

Images

Cabinet Information

This game utilizes the same basic cabinet as Crusin' USA and Offroad Challenge, minus the standard foot pedals and adding a variable position trottle with forward, neutral and reverse directions. The game also has an unusual volume adjustment, where the regular play volume is usually set lower than the feedback volume for the sub woofer in the seat. This places the player "in the game" and makes the person feel like her or she is piloting a powerful, high-tech speedboat.

Miscellaneous

This game is part of Midway's 'Thunder' series of racing games.

VAPS Arcade/Coin-Op Hydro Thunder Census

There are 15,264 members of the Video Arcade Preservation Society / Vintage Arcade Preservation Society, 9,669 whom participate in our arcade census project of games owned, wanted, or for sale. Census data currently includes 166,973 machines (7,000 unique titles).

Very Common - There are 151 known instances of this machine owned by Hydro Thunder collectors who are active members. Of these, 149 of them are original dedicated machines. One is a set of circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired.

For Sale - There are 15 active VAPS members with a Hydro Thunder machines for sale.

Wanted - Popular - There are 16 active VAPS members currently looking for Hydro Thunder.

This game ranks a 7 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census ownership records.

This game ranks a 25 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census want list records.

Rarity and Popularity independently are not necessarily indications of value. [More Information]

Flyers

Technical

These games used the Quantum3D Quicksilver II ArcadePC system which featured an Intel Pentium II or Celeron processor running at or around 400MHz.

Legacy

Manuals

25" Operations Manual - Hydro Thunder Manual — **25" Operations Manual**
(105 pages, 4.10 MB File)

Additional References (logged in members often see more)

3D Model (External): Sitdown (Large Screen) (ebb103bd-036a-49c8-8982-a8f6039e16ad)
3D Model (External): Sitdown (Large Screen, Twin) (56e9daba-3ebc-4fe6-8da5-00cdd1f87861)
3D Model (External): sit-down (6efea2523dab31137c8d48014e04ccd1)

Arcade Map - Play This Game

Our members have reported that Hydro Thunder is playable at 1 locations:

Name	Location	State	Country	Details	Check-ins
Bit Bar	278 Derby St, Salem	Massachusetts	United States	Unknown	1

eBay Listings

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TOP WATCHED LISTINGS FOR: Hydro Thunder